


Take Me High, and I'll Sing

by cIoudsmiIes



Category: Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Cloti - Freeform, F/M, First Time, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Final Fantasy VII Remake, Romance, Smut, YEAH they're virgins and YEAH their first time is flawless WHAT ABOUT IT
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:08:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 18,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25122187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cIoudsmiIes/pseuds/cIoudsmiIes
Summary: This is my first fanfiction, so please be gentle with me.I hope you like it!Also, here's the playlist I listened to while writing this: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7FW4wbDNSKd7kbcTYGoQAE?si=huYyVwL7T_6_HoVVV4y9Xw
Relationships: Tifa Lockhart & Cloud Strife, Tifa Lockhart/Cloud Strife
Comments: 47
Kudos: 171
Collections: Cloud and Tifa





	1. Chapter 1

It had only taken them a couple of days to reach Kalm, a small village outside of Midgar, stopping to eat and rest as needed, handling any monsters that got in their way. But they’d come across a particularly nasty drake in the outskirts at the edge of the village, and one of its talons had left a distressingly large gash on Tifa’s back, shocking her system so much that she fell unconscious. Normally, Aerith would have simply cast a healing spell, but she, like the rest of them, was exhausted from their journey, from their most recent battles, her magic abilities temporarily out of commission. Barret had driven the truck the rest of the way while Cloud had held Tifa in front him on his bike, trying to stay mindful of her wound as he tucked his arm around her waist and held her close. He kept his posture as straight as possible, allowing her head to loll back on his shoulder. 

Every so often, despite her state of unconsciousness, she would hiss in pain as Cloud hit a bump in the road, his front sliding too harshly against where she was bleeding out. Cloud felt his chest tightening with panic, an all too familiar feeling where Tifa was concerned, reminding him of a time where the circumstances were all too similar, raising bile in his throat. 

Cloud’s grip on the clutch of his bike tightened, and he revved the engine, kicking it into an impossibly higher gear. He was moving too fast for Barret and the others to keep up, but he couldn’t worry about that now. All he could worry about was Tifa, about saving her, about making sure she was safe. 

About keeping his promise. 

“Hold on, Tifa,” he commanded into her ear. She sighed at the sound of his voice, but it tapered into a cry as another dose of searing pain shot through her. 

Cloud could count on one hand the amount of constants he’d known in his life, and the only one that had weathered it all was her. Tifa Lockhart. When Nibelheim burned, Cloud thought he no longer had a home to come back to once Shinra was done with him, but he’d been wrong. He knew he would always have a home to return to as long as Tifa Lockhart had something to say about it. He didn’t know why, what made him worthy, or if he even was, but having her as the cornerstone of his life was sometimes all that kept him from falling apart. 

Losing Tifa Lockhart was not an option. 

Minutes, hours, possibly days later for all Cloud knew, he was parking outside of an inn and pulling Tifa off of his bike as tenderly as he was capable of. Rather than carrying her bridal style, worried about aggravating her wound further, he wrapped her arms around his neck and her thighs around his waist, hoisting her up and carrying her the same way Barret would carry Marlene to her room after letting her stay up too late to talk with him. 

Tifa’s head fell forward, slack, her cheek resting against Cloud’s shoulder and her lips brushing against the side of his neck with each step that he took. Under normal circumstances, Cloud would have found this very distracting, but all he could focus on now was getting her well again. He needed to bring back her sunny smile, her bright giggle, her honeyed voice, the combination of which was a balm to his aching soul. 

The inn was a shabby place, but it would do. Breathless, Cloud rushed up to the front desk and asked for a room. The receptionist looked up from her computer clearly unprepared for the sight that awaited her. Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head when she took in Cloud, dirty from the rough ride, carrying a limp Tifa, whose back was drenched in blood and facing directly at the receptionist. Face going pale, she quickly tapped away at her keyboard, then swiped a card and offered it to Cloud. 

“Thank you,” he said, voice ragged with fatigue. He adjusted his hold on Tifa, sliding one arm under the back of her thighs so he could grab the keycard with the other, then turned to walk to the room designated on the back of the keycard, room 106. 

As he began to distance himself from the front desk and made his way toward the hall, a gentle hand brushed his shoulder. He whirled around to find the receptionist standing in front of him, a concerned frown on her face. “Here,” she said, placing something else in the hand of his which was holding the keycard. “It’s on the house. Take care of her.” Then, she scurried back behind her desk.

Cloud looked down to find an elixir in his hand. His eyes flew over to the receptionist, but her attention was back on her computer screen. “I will. Thank you,” he replied. A normal person wouldn’t have known whether or not the receptionist had even heard them, but Cloud wasn’t normal. His mako-enhanced senses caught the slight upturn at the side of her mouth as he finally departed the lobby and headed for their room. 

Contorting himself so as not to drop the items in his hand and in order to maintain his grip on Tifa, Cloud slowly but surely managed to unlock the door to room 106. He kicked the door closed behind him, then walked over to the nightstand next to what was more of a cot than a bed, similar to what he’d slept on while training with Shinra. He sat the keycard down before very carefully laying Tifa down on her right side. As careful as he was, the minimal impact still pulled a whine from her. 

“Shhh,” he soothed, running the back of his hand across her forehead and over her cheek, securing a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “It’ll be better soon.” 

Sliding his hand underneath the back of her neck, Cloud delicately lifted her head upward, popping open the elixir and steadily pouring a generous amount into her mouth. The reaction was immediate as the elixir entered her system, Tifa’s hand coming up to grasp Cloud’s wrist, holding the bottle to her lips, her throat making long pulls as she drained every last drop of it. He tossed the empty bottle aside, then reached over Tifa’s side to graze his fingers along her lower back where she’d been slashed. The skin was completely closed up but still raw and sensitive, a groan spilling from her lips as he touched it, the accelerated healing process having taken all of her energy. 

Her eyes were fluttering, struggling to remain open as she gazed at him, indecipherable. He released her neck, letting her head fall back on the bed’s single pillow. He managed to find a rag in the tiny accompanying bathroom and wet it in the sink, using it to wipe her clean of the majority of the blood. There were some stains on the back of her sports bra, but she’d be all right until they found time to replace it or wash it thoroughly. He carefully removed the top sheet that she’d bled on when he first laid her down, then cautiously twisted her hips and shoulders so that she was now laying down completely. She was bone-tired, her body gone completely lax, offering no resistance to his manipulations. Her breathing had evened out, too. 

The only sign that she was still awake was her half-lidded gaze still fixed on Cloud. He finally answered it with his own. As soon as his eyes met hers, she offered him a lazy smile, and he couldn’t help but return it. 

She was okay. Tifa was okay. 

He released a breath he felt like he’d been holding since he pulled her onto his bike outside Kalm. 

Of its own volition, his hand reached back out to cup her cheek, his thumb brushing back and forth to caress it, comforting her. Defying the exhaustion that had made its home in her very bones, her smile broadened at his tender touch. 

After a long moment, he sighed and pulled away. She looked as if she were about to protest, but he cut her off. “You need to rest, Teef.” A pout painted her face, and it was so adorable that Cloud had the delirious urge to kiss it off of her. Before he could entertain it at all, he spoke again. “I’ll be here when you wake up. I promise.” This seemed to mollify her because the pout fell away as she finally surrendered to her body’s demands and closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep.

Sometime later, the door burst open, and Cloud turned to find Barret barreling inside. He nearly sprinted to Tifa’s side, kneeling and immediately wrapping one of her hands in his, then peeling his eyes away, moving them to Cloud. “Is she okay?” he asked. 

Cloud nodded shortly, holding back a grin at the older man’s obvious display of love for his surrogate daughter. “The receptionist gave me an elixir from their supply after she saw what bad shape Tifa was in. She’s just tired now.” 

Barret smiled, inhaling and exhaling a deep, calming breath. He lifted Tifa’s hand, holding it to his forehead before placing a soft kiss on it, then placing it back onto the bed. He stood back up and moved closer to Cloud, clasping a hand onto his shoulder. “Thank you, Cloud. I lost count of how many times you’ve saved her now.”

Cloud smirks at him, his gaze drifting to Tifa’s sleeping form before moving back to Barret. “She’s saved me, too.” 

Barret’s responding laugh, gruff and booming like the cannon on his arm, echoed through the room as he shoved Cloud’s shoulder. “Damn right she has!” Cloud rolled his eyes at him fondly. “We rented the room next door, by the way. We weren’t sure how much privacy or quiet Tifa might need. I’ll let Red and Aerith know she’s all right, but we’re gonna go ahead and settle in. Just holler if you need us, okay?”

“I will, Barret. Get some rest. You’ve earned it.” Cloud replied.

Cloud closed the door behind Barret as he left, then grabbed the only chair in the room, a rickety old thing, and sat it next to the bed where Tifa’s head was nestled. He leaned his elbows on his knees and watched her. The way her chest rose and fell with her steady breaths. The way her brow furrowed now and then, her mind caught up in dreams. The way her skin seemed to glow in the dim light from the rusty lantern attempting to illuminate the space. Her skin looked soft. 

Again, Cloud found himself fighting the urge to touch her, scrubbing his hand over his face in frustration.

He wasn’t a fool. He knew how beautiful Tifa was, always had. In fact, he probably noticed before anyone else did. Aside from her parents, that is. The first time Cloud remembered seeing her, he was struck so dumb that he couldn’t even speak. He didn’t really have a concept of what beauty was  _ supposed  _ to be back then, only his own ideas based on his own personal experiences. All he knew was long, thick brown hair and creamy skin and eyes that looked like the cinnamon his mom would put on his toast in the morning. All he knew was her smile, enough to thaw the coldest heart. All he knew was her laugh, his favorite song. And no one had ever compared to her. No one else had ever made him feel the way that she did. No one else had made him want to be more, hoping to one day be worthy of them. No one else was Tifa. 

And maybe that’s why he was no good with other women. He never knew how to respond to their advances, couldn’t even conceive of flirting with them, could barely even make conversation with them. 

But not Tifa. No, Tifa made him want things he never wanted when he was around other people. She made him want to create conversation if only for the opportunity to further break down her walls, open her up to him, let him in. She made him want to impress her. She made him want to make her smile, make her laugh. She made him want to… 

It didn’t matter. None of that mattered because, even if he was Tifa’s, even if he was only ever hers, could only ever  _ be _ hers, that didn’t mean Tifa was his. And either way, he didn’t deserve her. 

“I like to watch her sleep, too.” A lilting voice jolted him from his rumination, and he turned to find Aerith standing in the doorway, a soft smile lighting her features, her bright green eyes practically glued to Tifa’s face.

Cloud cleared his throat. “You do?” 

Aerith nodded heartily. “On the journey here, we would all take shifts, napping off and on, rotating between the cab of the truck and the bed of it as needed. My favorite times were when I ended up in the bed with Tifa because, rather than sleep like I was supposed to be doing, I would get to watch her. It’s nice to see her so peaceful. Relaxed, you know?” 

“Yeah.” 

“She’s always so worried about everyone else that these moments are rare. I like to indulge in them whenever I can.” Aerith giggled, and it warmed Cloud’s heart. “I know it sounds silly since she and I haven’t known each other long, but… I think I love her.” Cloud raised his eyebrows, incredulous, but Aerith only giggled louder. “Do you know how amazing it is that she was willing to help me? That she didn’t try to convince you otherwise?” Cloud frowned. He didn’t understand. Aerith shook her head, smirking at him. “She knew that coming after me would put your life in danger, Cloud. And I don’t mean the general ‘you.’ I mean you specifically. She was willing to accept the risk of your life in order to save me. She put me first, prioritized me over you, even though she barely knew me.” 

Cloud’s frown only deepened, and he stared at the ground, trying hard to comprehend Aerith’s words. “She risked her own life, too, Aerith.” 

Aerith practically growled at him then, although her smile remained. “Her own life isn’t as important to her as your life is, Cloud. It takes a certain amount of selflessness to risk your own life for someone else because you believe it’s right. It takes a near inhuman amount of selflessness to risk the life of the person most important to you.” 

“I’m not—” 

“You don’t see it at all, do you? You’re actually that oblivious.” She laughed again, exasperated. 

He was so confused. Sure, Tifa had saved Cloud’s life multiple times now, but that didn’t mean she put his life before her own, did it? And he certainly wasn’t the most important person in her life. There was Marlene and Barret. Even Aerith was making quick work of growing on Tifa. He hadn’t done that, had he? He wasn’t a part of her in that way. She existed high above him, out of his reach. How could she look down  _ at _ him without looking down  _ on _ him? It didn’t make any sense. “No, you’re wrong, I don’t think—”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” she interrupted, “it’s ‘not like that’ and ‘hard to explain.’ I’ve heard it before. But have you asked her what it  _ is  _ like? Have you tried asking  _ her _ to explain since you yourself don’t understand it? You two have a history, Cloud. You think that means nothing to her?” 

Cloud’s skin felt hot, too tight to contain all that he was thinking and feeling. “I… haven’t. I guess I’ve just assumed what her answers would be.” 

“And how’s that working out for you?” There was no judgment or ridicule in her voice, only genuine concern and legitimate caring. 

How was it working out for him? Was he unhappy? If he was, did that have to do with the space still stretched between him and Tifa? He always felt lighter around Tifa. It was as if she saw the weight of the world on his shoulders and chose to share it with him, as if she  _ wanted _ to share it with him. Maybe that was because, without realizing it, he was sharing hers, too. Maybe they were better suited to shoulder each other’s burdens than their own. Maybe they were good for each other. 

Or maybe he did none of that for Tifa. 

But he wanted to.

And he never could if he didn’t talk to her about it. 

Like a sack of bricks to his jaw, Cloud was struck by just how badly he needed to bridge that gap, the gap that kept him from truly connecting with Tifa. He needed to be with her at the closest proximity she would allow, and he’d never know how close that would be unless he reached out to her. 

“She loves you, Cloud.” For the second time that evening, Aerith’s voice broke Cloud from his thoughts. “Give her the chance, and she’ll tell you.” She stood then and squeezed his shoulder gently, her smile as present as ever but somehow sad now. 

In the short time he’d known her, Cloud had come to adore Aerith. She was beautiful and bubbly and sweet, the kind of person he needed in his life to shake him out of his catatonia, to force him to wake up and smell the lilies. He was grateful for her. 

She sighed, a weary sound, “You’re never guaranteed time, Cloud. You never know how much of it you’ll have with someone.” Her eyes drifted over to the wall where the Buster Sword leaned against it, the materia slotted inside of it gleaming in the lantern’s light, then turned back to Cloud. “Don’t waste it.” 

As she left the room, she flicked her wrist, an elegant motion, and a tiny wisp of magic floated through the air before landing on Tifa and lightly stirring her from her sleep. She must’ve cast a weak version of Esuna, he figured. 

Tifa’s eyes fluttered open leisurely, her dark lashes batting over her cheeks. Upon opening, her eyes immediately zeroed in on his own, the contact charged with something ineffable, something like gravity. Then, she was smiling at him, and if there were any evidence to support Aerith’s theory about Tifa’s feelings for him, it would be this smile. Cloud had spent plenty of time with Tifa, and he had never seen her give this smile to anyone else. Sometimes, he thought it might be a smile she reserved just for him. 

He smiled back, warm and open, a smile he  _ definitely  _ reserved just for her. “You feeling better?” he asked, truly wanting to know. She simply nodded, her smile enduring. 

He sighed, appeased, “Good, I’m glad.” He stood, stretching on a yawn, and he wasn’t certain, but he thought he heard her giggle at his display. Cracking his neck on each side, he rolled his shoulders, slipped out of his suspenders, undid his belt, and removed his pauldron. He tossed the accessories aside, then kicked off his boots and said, “Now scoot over.” Her eyes went wide, and her forehead creased in either confusion or shock, maybe something else entirely. He couldn’t be sure. 

Then, strangely, she slid her hand up to her own face and started prodding it with her fingers, pinching her nose, lightly smacking her forehead, smushing her cheek. Concerned she may have sustained a head injury that they’d missed, he clasped his hand around her wrist, stilling her peculiar movements. She inhaled a sharp breath at his touch, then examined where his hand held her wrist and said, “Well, that answers that then.” 

He quirked a brow at her. “What do you mean?” 

She giggled at him, a full, saccharine sound that coated his veins with warmth. “I thought I might still be dreaming.” Her eyes met his again, imbued with the same charged energy as before, only worse, sweltering because they were touching now, skin-to-skin. Stupidly, he hadn’t let go of her wrist yet, either unwilling, unable, or both. Probably both. And not only were they touching, but she had just admitted, in a roundabout way, that she dreamed of him often enough and in similar enough situations for her to plausibly believe she was still dreaming when he asked to get in bed with her. 

There was a lot to unpack.

But rather than overthink it, as was his usual way, he decided to pick up where they’d left off. “I said scoot over, Teef.”

She blushed then, the color painting her cheeks a perfect complement to her gorgeous, crimson eyes. And there it was again, that gravity. He was helpless to fight it.

He took a step forward and slid one of his knees onto the bed. She immediately scooted backwards toward the wall, giving him as much room as she could. He made an approving noise and climbed onto the bed, laying his head back against the pillow before opening his inside arm to her. She accepted the invitation and slid closer to him, nuzzling into his chest. 

Cloud was actually holding it together pretty well all things considered, but then she reached back behind herself, grabbed his hand, and brought it up to splay on her hip, his arm effectively caging her against him. Once she was satisfied with its placement, she then hiked her leg up and over Cloud’s hips, making herself comfortable and transforming him into her own personal body pillow.

She tilted her face up to look at him, and when he met her gaze, she smiled at him. Now this smile was not only one he’d never seen her give to anyone else but new entirely. It wasn’t sweet or charming or compassionate. It was… misbehaving. It wasn’t so much a smile as it was a simper. It made his hands itch to touch, to take. Cloud had never done anything like that before, but his instincts were kicking in, and they were screaming at him to  _ do something _ .

But he couldn’t yet. He couldn’t touch her or take her or take any action within anywhere near the same realm as that without talking to her first.

Sighing, he brought his hand to her face. He grazed his fingertips over her cheek, then combed his fingers into her hair and held the side of her head, making it clear that he needed her to be looking at him. She understood and locked her gaze with his. 

“Tifa…” He realized he had no idea where to begin. 

Apparently she did, though, because before he figured out his next words, she said, “Thank you for saving me and taking care of me.” She smiled again before laying her head back down on his chest. His hand followed, magnetized. Cloud absentmindedly stroked her hair, and he felt her chest rise and fall on a contented sigh. She was always cute, but even more so like this, curled up to his side and practically purring at his caress. He could get used to it. 

Her ear rested just over his heart, and he was sure she could hear it, how it was beating faster by the second. 

Remembering that he should be responding to her, he cleared his throat. “I’ll always take care of you, and I’ll always be here to save you. I promised.” 

She giggled, and it vibrated through his chest and stomach, making his head light and giving him butterflies. As if she could sense this, she spread her hand out over his abdomen, quelling his nerves as if her touch were actually magic.

“Always can be a long time, you know.” She looked up at him from under her eyelashes, smirking only to conceal an insecurity that anyone else who looked at her may not have noticed. 

“Yes, I do know, but thank you for reminding me.” She glared at him playfully, lightly smacking his chest in a way that said  _ don’t get smart with me _ . He bit back a smile and continued, “When I say that I promised, I’m not saying it to signify that I see caring for you as an obligation, Tifa. I’m saying it to make sure you remember that I’m not going anywhere, no matter how many times you convince yourself to be afraid that I am. The more time I have with you, with Barret, with Aerith, but most especially you, the less and less likely it is that I could ever be bothered to be anywhere but where you are.” As they flowed freely from his mouth, thoughts he’d had subconsciously but never lingered on or given much space to, he realized just how true they were. They were his home. Tifa was his home. Why would he ever leave? 

Momentarily lost in this discovery, Cloud almost didn’t notice Tifa sniffling. His hand left the side of her face to grasp her chin and tilt her face up to look at him. “Are you crying, Teef?” 

She lifted a hand up to swipe away the tears striping her cheeks. “Yes, I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologize. But why are you crying?” 

She laughed grimly. “Because, I… I just feel cheated, I guess. Up until very recently, I didn’t know if I’d ever see you again. Then suddenly you come back into my life, and I’m just as incandescently happy to have you back as I always knew I would be, but… everything’s so complicated. Plus, when you came back, you didn’t just bring you, you ended up bringing me Aerith, too, and it turns out things also happen to be complicated for her.” She clutched his sweater where her hand had been flattened out over it a moment earlier. “And it’s a good thing! It’s a  _ good thing _ to have so many people to love.” Cloud’s heart leapt at the word. “But it’s also terrifying because the more people you love… the more you have to lose. And the higher the stakes are, the more likely you are to lose them. I’ve already lost so much…” Guilt wracked Cloud’s chest the way it always did when he was reminded of when he’d failed her, when everything they’d ever known had been destroyed. “And for us, the stakes are abnormally, supernaturally high. I guess… I guess your words just made me remember that.”

He huffed a laugh, humorless. “I understand the feeling. It’s especially unpleasant when you’ve gone as long as I did without having anyone to love.” 

“But…” she began, “But you have that now? Someone to love?” Cloud would have to have been a complete idiot not to hear the hope in her voice. Maybe Cloud had been a complete idiot this whole time. Actually, scratch that, he’d  _ definitely _ been a complete idiot. If he was going to regain the ground his idiocy had lost him, it would take words, which were never really his thing, but when it came to Tifa, he always seemed to manage.

“Teef—” Her grip on his shirt tightened. He begged his heart to calm down so he could get this out. “Teef, when you got hurt earlier, do you know how scared I was?” She didn’t say anything, didn’t move a muscle. “I was terrified, absolutely terrified at the prospect of losing you. My whole life, there’s only been one thing I’ve ever truly wanted. Do you know what that is?”

“To be a SOLDIER?”

“No, Teef. Even becoming a SOLDIER was only what I considered a stepping stone to my greater desire.” He took a deep breath. This was the moment of truth. He couldn’t mess it up. “All I’ve ever wanted, and I mean really,  _ desperately _ wanted in a selfish, exposed way… is you.” 

Tifa’s entire body went stiff, and her breathing quickened almost to a pant, her hold on his sweater stressing the fabric, nearly tearing it. “You—” Her voice was different, even more honeyed than usual but also deeper and huskier like she’d slept for twelve hours straight in the single second it took him to say he wanted her. “You want me?” 

“Do you think I would lie to you?” He finally brought himself to look at her and nearly swallowed his tongue. Her eyes were molten, scorching, what he can only describe as the absolute textbook definition of “doe eyes.” Her bottom lip was trapped between her teeth. His reassurance seemed to have dispelled the initially uncertain stiffness in her body, but the places where her body was touching his didn’t feel relaxed the way she’d been before. They only felt more… coiled. 

She licked her lips and squirmed slightly in his arms. “Why do you want me?” 

He chuckled, “Why wouldn’t I?” When he hazarded another glance down at her, her eyes were imploring him to elaborate, so he did. “I don’t know, Teef, it’s somehow the simplest, most obvious thing while also being the most difficult to put into words. I just feel like I’m wired a certain way, and that way is specific to you. I sometimes look at myself and think that I was put together wrong, that I’m defective somehow, but no matter what I am or how it happened, I know I was made with you in mind. You’re all that I’ve ever been sure about, all that I’m sure about even now, even when I’m scared of what you might be thinking or feeling or what you might be about to say. I’m still sure that all I want is to be right here with you.” Tifa wasn’t looking at him anymore. Her forehead was pressing into his sternum, her hold on his sweater having graduated to a full-on death grip. “Does that answer your question?” 

She shook her head where it was leaning into him and, as if too affected by his sentiments to speak at much more than a whisper, she quietly said, “ _ More _ .” And unmistakably, with the hand of his that she had placed on herself earlier, he felt her hips give an involuntary little jerk. 

Oh.  _ Oh _ . 

Cloud could work with this. 

He removed his gloves, setting them on the nightstand as he continued, “And it’s not just some unspoken, innate feeling inside of me that tells me I want you, Teef. There are more obvious symptoms. For instance, when you smile at me, it’s as if all the air leaves the room, as if the rest of the world falls away. It makes my palms start sweating. And when you say my name or when you laugh, it’s as if I’ve never heard anything more beautiful. I’ve heard birds sing, heard wind passing through trees, heard rain as it falls on pavement, heard ocean waves lapping against a shore, but nothing so appealing as your voice. It makes me wonder what other kind of lovely sounds you might make…” She trembled against him, and Cloud knew he could do this forever. “Or when I watch you fight. The way you let loose, how it illustrates your constant restraint outside of battle. The graceful way you move, like you’re dancing more than you are fighting, and yet doing just as much damage if not more than I do. You’re powerful and strong, and I can’t help but wonder what it feels like to be at your mercy.” 

A moan spilled from her lips, muffled by his sweater as she clung to him tighter. She slipped her hand downward and grazed her fingers over his lower abdomen, the muscles clenching at her touch, before sliding her hand up underneath his sweater to feel the planes of him. He was beginning to lose himself in her, but he wouldn’t give in, not yet. He wasn’t done building her anticipation.

“Then there’s what anyone with eyes can see. Your long, lean legs. I like to imagine what they might feel like wrapped around me…” The leg she had hitched over his hip tightened around him, promising that she’d be more than happy to show him. “Your smooth, buttercream skin. I like to imagine how it might taste, if it’s as sweet as it looks. Your thick, raven hair. I like to imagine how it might look curtained around me as I stare up at you on top of me or how it might look fanned out by your shoulders and hips as I stare down at you underneath me.” 

Rewarding him for his sweet nothings, she drug her nails down over his chest and stomach, relieving the pressure just as she reached the skin above his belt, waiting there, the static electricity of their attraction creating a phantom sensation of her would-be touch where he wanted it most. It was maddening. 

She gazed at him expectantly now, encouraging him to go on, a pattern of behavior emerging. He studied her body, his eyes poring over every bit of her available to them. For perhaps the first time in his entire life, Cloud threw all caution to the wind and voiced thoughts that most people who knew him probably assumed he wasn’t even capable of, spoke words that most people who knew him probably assumed weren’t in his vocabulary. “Your sleek, sinuous neck. I like to imagine wrapping my hand around it, squeezing it lightly, using it for leverage as I drive myself into you. Your tight, wet pussy. I like to imagine how warm it might be, how it might clench around my fingers or my cock when I make you come—”

“ _ Please _ .” He could tell she wanted to grind herself against him, wanted to buck her hips against his until they were both satisfied. But she wouldn’t do it without his permission. 

Soon. He would give her what she needed soon. 

“But, Teef, I haven’t even mentioned your breasts yet. Or your ass. Or your hips. Or your waist.” He brushed his hand over each part of her as he named it. Her nipples were peaking through the fabric of her sports bra, and he needed to get his mouth on them, give them the attention they were pleading for. “Or your full, velvet lips.” He punctuated these words by grasping her jaw and goading her mouth toward his, his lips hovering less than a breath away from hers. He nudged her nose with his before just barely swiping his tongue across her bottom lip, then retreating. 

Her nails dug into his skin as she whined in objection to his teasing. He only chuckled. 

“You know what makes me want you most of all, though, Teef? The fact that, in all my life, whenever I’ve laid down at night and put my hands on myself, whenever I close my eyes, you’re all I see, all of those precious details flood my senses and drive me to that edge. And I have never needed anyone or anything else. Just you. The simple thought of you is enough to make me lose control.” 

“ _ Cloud _ ,” she cried, “I need—” 

Cloud suddenly gripped her hips on either side and lifted her to settle on top of him fully, her knees bent and spread wide, her center now flush against his but for the thin layer of fabric separating them. 

Tifa’s hands landed on his chest to balance herself, then slid forward to clasp onto his shoulders as she slowly began to roll her hips. She muffled her keening in his neck, sucking and nipping at it, running her tongue over the spots she’d savaged to soothe them. After a few moments of this, he removed one of his hands from her hips and grasped her jaw again, impatiently slotting her mouth against his. Still gyrating on top of him, her pace galvanized by the feeling of their first kiss, she sighed into his mouth.

They both seemed to discover their love of kissing at the exact same moment and silently came to an agreement that they would be doing a lot more of it in the future. At every opportunity. Whether it led to sex or not. 

He swiped his tongue over her bottom lip again, and she opened to grant him entry, their tongues clashing. He groaned at the sensation, his hold tightening on her hip, his other hand sliding down from her jaw and lightly wrapping around her neck the way he’d been wanting to. They got into a perfect rhythm, the swiveling of her hips synced up with the swiveling of their tongues. Cloud would break it up just long enough to suck on Tifa’s bottom lip. She would break it up to harshly suck on his tongue, giving him a vivid idea of what it might feel like were she to mimic such an action on a different part of him. He didn’t know you could simultaneously love and hate something so much. 

They went on like this until Tifa felt that telltale warmth pooling in her belly, her movements becoming more erratic. Cloud seemed to catch on because he brought his hand back down to rejoin the other on her hips and pressed her harder against him, guiding her movements as she lost control of them. 

She was close, so close. “Cloud. Cloud, Cloud, Cloud, Cloud,  _ Cloud _ —!” 

Just before she fell over the edge, Cloud lifted one of his hands, separating his middle and ring fingers before gently slipping them into her mouth, stifling the sounds she was making. 

Tifa’s hips bucked faster and faster until the wave finally crested, and her orgasm washed over her, her breath rushing out of her lungs. She sucked on Cloud’s fingers while she came, sobbing and gripping his forearm for dear life as she rode out her climax. It felt as if it began again several times, giving the effect of many orgasms in one, and for a short time, she lost all coherent thought. 

When she finally tumbled back down from her high, her hips slowing to a stop, she opened her eyes to find Cloud smiling up at her, the smile equal parts smug and smitten. She memorized every detail she could to ensure that she would remember the image of it for as long as possible, hopefully as long as she lived. It was the most beautiful, wonderful thing she’d ever seen. 

Cloud slowly removed his fingers from Tifa’s mouth and groaned at the string of saliva that followed them, still connected to her mouth. Who knew he would enjoy something so utterly filthy?

He took in the sight of her, sated from her release, chest heaving, lips red and swollen from kissing, cheeks flushed. It made his cock throb with want. 

“Look at you,” Cloud rumbled. 

Tifa’s face split into a wide grin, and his heart thudded against his ribs, doing its level best to break free and go to her. 

After giving her a moment to catch her breath, Cloud brought his dry hand around to lightly tap her ass. “Up. On your knees,” he commanded. She followed his order, straightening up onto her knees as he leaned forward off of his elbows to sit up. She braced herself on his shoulders again, and almost simultaneously, they noticed how close her breasts were to his face. He smirked at them, then up at her, before raising his hand to tap the fabric of her sports bra covering her back. “Off,” he said.

Tifa had always thought she would’ve been shy to reveal herself to someone for the first time. But when Cloud told her to, she didn’t hesitate. Of course, maybe that was the crux of it: this was Cloud. She trusted Cloud more than anyone. Cloud had just given her the best orgasm of her life. She had nothing to be afraid of. 

After slipping her suspenders off, she quickly wrapped her arms around herself, grabbing either side of her bra and lifting it over her head in one smooth motion, her breasts falling free and her nipples pebbling in the cool air of their room. It took her a moment to remove the bra completely from around her raven tresses. When she lifted her eyes back up to meet Cloud’s, his eyes were focused elsewhere. He stared at her breasts, mesmerized, like a starving man who could only be sustained by what was before him. Trapped in orbit, he leaned forward until he was close enough to gently reach out his tongue and make a pass over one of her nipples. 

Instantly, she brought her hands up to grip the back of his head, her fingers tangling in his hair, anchoring him to her. Encouraged by her positive reaction, he decided to test another theory, wrapping his lips around the nipple and suckling at it, making her whimper. Once he’d figured out what she liked most, he began to do it over and over until she was mewling. Then, while he had her distracted and loosened up by his mouth’s ministrations, he slid his wet fingers over her abdomen and into her skirt to press against her entrance. 

It was awkward at first, Cloud never having done this before, probing to find the right spot, but once he did, his middle finger slipped right in, aided by the evidence of her first orgasm. Suddenly, he was inside of her, his senses completely overwhelmed by her, the scent of her skin, the last traces of her rose oil mixed with something uniquely  _ Tifa _ , the lust in her ruby eyes as he languidly started to drive his finger in and out of her, her jaw gone slack, the lingering taste of her tongue mingled with his, the sound of her wanton moaning as he carefully added a second finger, the welcoming heat of her. His mouth left her breast with an audible  _ pop _ , and he gasped, “ _ Gods,  _ Tifa. You feel… so good.”

She preened at his praise, shivering on a sigh as he continued moving in and out of her, scissoring his fingers to help her get used to being opened up. Every so often, she would hiss when he stretched his fingers particularly wide.

“You okay, Teef? Do you need me to stop—?” 

“ _ No,  _ don’t you dare!” She covered her face with her hands, embarrassed at her own enthusiasm. Chuckling, Cloud quickly removed them, pulled Tifa down to him with his free hand, and showered her face in kisses, an attempt at reminding her that she didn’t need to be self-conscious with him, that they never had to hide from each other, that they didn’t have to take themselves so seriously. They could just  _ be _ . “It’s just that your hands are a lot bigger than mine, so I’m still… adapting. But it’s a good kind of pain, you know? The kind where your body can’t tell if you’re punishing or rewarding it. I—” She wiggled her hips a little, jostling him inside of her, and let out a sigh, “I like it.” 

A dopey grin painted his face, and he leaned his chin against her sternum. “I like that you like it.” 

She giggled at him, and it turned into a whine as the motion of her laughter made her slide down farther onto his hand, his fingers driving even deeper, reaching places inside of her that even she hadn’t discovered before. “Keep going, Cloud.  _ Please _ .” 

It did something to him to hear her beg like that. He’d always had the strongest instinct to care for Tifa, to gratify her. To hear her ask for that gratification so plainly made him feel powerful. “I will do whatever you want,” he promised, then promptly took back up with his explorations. 

Deep inside of Tifa, Cloud felt the edge of something textured and almost round. He curled his fingers upwards to get a better grip on it, pressing it like a button, and she wailed in his ear as her vision whited out.

“Oh,  _ fuck _ , whatever you just did,  _ please _ do it again,” she begged, her chest heaving with strained breaths. 

Cloud’s head swam at the sound of such a filthy word coming from Tifa’s mouth. Tifa never said words like that. In spite of being such a badass, and in spite of all that she’d been through, Tifa was sweet and demure.

But not right now. Not when she was in Cloud’s power. In Cloud’s power, she was exposed and raw. He was seeing a version of Tifa that no one else knew, and it was even more beautiful than he could have ever dreamed. It was intoxicating.

He began to pump his hand a little faster, curling his fingers up to meet that sensitive spot inside of her each time. After a moment of this, Tifa had gone totally silent, her entire body seizing, a lightning rod for ecstasy. She was already close again, close to that heavenly plane. Cloud didn’t slow, wanting nothing more than to see her come to pieces again. 

Her hands were scrabbling at his shoulders, her hips grinding greedily against his palm. The heel of his palm brushed up against the nub nestled at the top of her sex, and she gasped. He realized that he’d found her clit and felt excitement bubble in his chest. He made sure that her clit received that same delicious pressure each time he thrust his fingers to hit that sweet spot inside of her. Soon enough, she was writhing over him and biting into his shoulder to quiet her screams. “I’m so close,” she cried, “I just need—”

“You’re doing so well, Teef.” Cloud continued working her as he purred into her ear, “I love watching you lose control, so pretty and perfect while you fall apart in front of me.”

Tifa was sobbing as she came. He helped her ride through it, his hand keeping its pace on her clit until it became too much for her, and she reached down to still him, shakily pulling his fingers out of her, now drenched and dripping from her second orgasm. She was panting loudly, her face still buried against his neck, her hands pressed flat against his chest for support. When her breathing finally leveled out, she lifted her head to find him gazing at her with all the fondness in the world. It made her heart skip a beat.

He hummed as he lifted his fingers, still sopping wet from her release, up towards his face, sucking them into his mouth and licking them clean while she watched, stupefied. Once he’d finished slurping up the remains of her climax, he locked eyes with her and hummed, “Mmmmm, you’re good at that.”

Only Cloud Strife would think to compliment her on how she comes. Only Cloud.

Cloud watched as Tifa’s eyes turned from unassuming and shy back to molten heat. He was painfully reminded of the aching hard-on trapped behind his zipper.

She huffed a laugh, “You know, Cloud, I think you were right earlier.” Utilizing a bit of that unbridled strength she usually kept subdued, she shoved his chest so that he was suddenly lying on his back with her hovering over him, her hair draping over the both of them, creating the illusion that they were entirely alone, on a separate plane of existence, like their very own star. “When you said that you were made for me? I think you were right. But…” She slid her hand down his torso until her fingers caught on the button of his pants. “You forgot something important. See, if you were made for me, Cloud…” She deftly unfastened the button, then slowly dragged the zipper down, relieving some of the pressure on his throbbing cock as it started to spring free. “Then that means I was also made for you.” She wrapped her hand around his cock, releasing it from its prison, and squeezed lightly, drawing a groan from his throat. She leaned in next to his ear and whispered, “Show me how you like it, Cloud. Teach me how to please you.”

Cloud stared up at the ceiling, wide-eyed and speechless, as he moved his trembling hand to take hold of her own and guide her in handling him. First, he pulled her hand away and brought it in front of his mouth, spitting into it. Tifa was startled for a second before she nodded in understanding. He was used to his own grip, stronger than most, so he squeezed hers a little tighter, and she took his lead. Then, he started sliding their hands up and down himself while he bit back a harsh moan. He showed her how fast he liked it, then removed his hand, telling her she could act on her own now. She chuckled, her mouth still next to his ear, as she started freely fucking him with her fist. 

He could hear the smile in her voice as she said, “You feel good, Cloud. And you’re  _ big _ . I can barely wrap my hand around you. Since it’s my first time, I’m not sure I’d be able to take all of you, but I’m willing to try if you are.”

Cloud felt like he would die if she stopped touching him. “Tifa, I—  _ Ah _ ,” he keened as she drew her fist upward, squeezing harder at the top, running her thumb over his tip.

“What do you say, Strife? I mean coming on your fingers was amazing, the best thing that’s ever happened to me, but I have this psychic feeling that coming on your cock would be even better—”

“ _ Please _ , Tifa. Please, please, please.”

“Thought so,” she quipped, grinning as she rose up off of him. He almost protested at the loss of contact until he realized she was climbing off of the bed and shimmying her skirt down over her hips, taking her underwear along with it.

Aside from the thigh-high stockings she’d kept on, Tifa was completely naked in front of him. Cloud leaned up on his elbows and dug his teeth into his lip while he raked his eyes over her body, his pulse racing. “You’re—” he tried, but words seemed so far away right now, muted by his mind’s focus on the vision that was Tifa Lockhart.

“I’m…?” She walked toward him, her hands clasped behind her back. It was a habit of hers around him, and seeing her do it now, still so comfortable in his presence, still entirely herself despite what they’d just done and were about to do made his heart clench. 

“You’re…” he started again, then sighed, “stunning.” 

Her cheeks grew flushed, and she looked down at the ground. “Thank you,” she whispered, so quiet, her voice thick with emotion. She crossed the remaining distance to the bed and reached a hand out to gather it in the front of his sweater. “Can you take this off, please?” she asked timidly. 

He sat up, reaching behind his shoulders to grab the back of his shirt and pull it forward over his head. He laid back on his elbows once more, and she ran the fingertips of her outreached hand over his torso slowly, so slowly, her mouth hanging slightly open. 

Her hand slid down to the waist of his pants. “And these, too?” 

He nodded silently, then lifted his hips before sliding his pants and underwear down his legs. After he’d kicked them off completely, letting them land on the floor at the foot of the bed, he presented himself to her again.

She smiled shyly and said, “I thought about you almost every day after you left the village. We had separated at a point in our lives where I knew that, the next time I saw you, you wouldn’t be the same boy I’d met at the well all those years ago. I knew you’d be a man. I imagined what that might look like more times than I can count. But my imagination did no justice to the man you actually became, Cloud. You’re more beautiful than I ever thought possible.” 

Cloud couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Tifa Lockhart thought  _ he _ was beautiful. If someone had come up to him yesterday and told him that Tifa felt this way about him, he would’ve laughed in their face. It was too good to be true. 

And he didn’t get the chance to thank her because, in the middle of his bewilderment, she immediately climbed back onto the bed, straddled his hips, and lined him up with her entrance. His hands instinctively went to her waist to hold her. “Are you sure you want to do this, Teef?”

“Of course, I am. Are you?”

He quirked his eyebrow in a way that said  _ is that a serious question _ , and she laughed out loud. It warmed him.

She leaned down to kiss him, swallowing his cry as she slowly slid down onto him. She took him in bit by bit, sliding down, then coming back up just to slide back down a little bit farther each time until he was fully sheathed inside her. 

Cloud was quietly losing his mind, a poorly contained livewire. Tifa sat atop him, unmoving, allowing her opening to mold itself around him. Eventually, she sighed, her eyes closed, as a pleased smile spread across her open mouth. Then, she started moving, raising herself up and slipping back down in steady strokes. There were small whimpers spilling from her lips that grew into lewd moans, throaty and raspy and music to Cloud’s ears. 

She opened her eyes and looked down to find Cloud’s fists clenched in the bedsheets, his eyes shut tight and his lips pursed while he took pointed, deep breaths. She realized that he was physically restraining himself, and it made something inside her crack open. “Cloud,” she prompted. His eyes snapped open to meets hers, and they were electric with need. “Cloud, you don’t have to hold back with me. I’m not as fragile as I might seem. I promise I can take whatever you give me.”

Truth be told, Cloud  _ was _ holding himself back, and a great deal at that. But ever since that night outside of Aerith’s house, when he’d held Tifa in his arms too tightly and almost hurt her, he’d been constantly conscious of how much strength he put behind his interactions with people outside of battle. Up to this point, he’d been managing fairly well, letting go while remaining just aware enough that he wouldn’t do Tifa any harm. But he didn’t know if he could maintain that awareness if he were to let go right now. He was afraid of losing control, of getting lost in her.

“Please,” she begged, “I want all of you.”

Far be it from Cloud to deny Tifa anything she wanted.

He growled as he set himself loose, holding her close while he rolled them over so she was lying on her back, his forearms placed on either side of her head, suspending him above her. He allowed himself a moment to enjoy the image of Tifa underneath him, her breasts rising and falling with the rhythm of her labored breathing, her tongue darting out to lick her bottom lip in anticipation of his inevitable kiss. He looked into her red eyes, and they shined with rapture at being taken by him, something he was sure he could never have earned. She wouldn’t agree, though. No, somehow, Tifa saw the best in him. She didn’t find him wanting but worthy. But then that made sense, didn’t it? As he looked at her, he realized that Tifa didn’t just see the best in him but in everyone. Tifa saw the whole world through rose-colored eyes.

Cloud grabbed Tifa’s calves, hooked her legs around his hips, and planted his knees on either side of her waist. He pressed Tifa’s thighs down into the bed, spreading her wide for him. Smoothing his hands down her sides, he grasped her hips and tilted them upward, allowing him to settle into her even further. As he slipped in all the way to the hilt, and their hips became flush with one another, they groaned in unison, his forehead falling to Tifa’s collarbone. After taking a second to breathe through the staggering sensation of being gripped by Tifa’s tight, wet heat, Cloud lifted his head and met her eyes with his own.

“Are you okay?” he asked. And he genuinely cared. Her wellbeing took priority above all else in most moments for him, but especially in this one.

She beamed at him, taking his face in her hands, and said, “Never better.”

A knot inside of his chest loosened. He smiled and captured her lips in a kiss much more tender than the others they’d shared up until now. It wasn’t about passion or desire but about security. It was a safe place to land. It was home.

It was a new promise.

He gradually began to move, pumping in and out of her similar to how she’d slid onto him, leaving her bit by bit, removing more of himself each time until he was slamming his entire length into her with every rock of his hips. 

Tifa wasn’t making any noise now, just digging her teeth into her bottom lip and staring at Cloud, her hands clutching his shoulders. The drag of him against her inner walls was stealing the breath from her lungs. She broke her gaze from his face for an instant to watch as he pushed in and out of her but found far more than she bargained for. Cloud saw tears welling in her eyes, a hand rushing up to cover her mouth as she sucked in a sharp breath. 

He slowed his hips. “Tifa, what’s the matter?”

She slid the hand that had been covering her mouth down her torso to the lower part of her abdomen. “Cloud, I can… I can  _ see _ you, and…” She pressed the heel of her hand into her abdomen and sighed, “I can  _ feel _ you.” 

Cloud quickly realized what she meant when she removed her hand, opening up to his view. There, at the center of her hips, he could see it, too. He was driving into her so deeply that the outline of his cock was visible through her skin. “Am I hurting you?”

She laughed, shaking her head. “No, it’s good, so good, I…” Her hand came up to his chest, her palm splaying just over his heart. “I feel complete.”

Cloud could live a hundred lifetimes and never deserve her. He leaned in so that their noses were practically touching, their lips ghosting over each other’s, and whispered, “I love you.”

Before Tifa could respond, he rolled his hips again, dragging a moan from her throat. She began lifting her hips to meet his as he drove inside of her. The movement pulled him deeper still, and when their hips met at a certain angle, Cloud struck that sweet spot he’d discovered inside of her earlier, causing her to cry out. He moved faster, pistoning his hips, making sure he kept hitting that button over and over. With each thrust, he whispered again and again, “I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you…”

“Don’t stop, don’t stop, don’t stop, don’t stop, don’t stop…” Her voice was frenzied and shaking. He could feel her spasming around him, a kiss away from her climax.

He reached out and clasped his hands with hers, interlacing their fingers and stretching their arms out above them. They were as close to each other as they could possibly be. Skimming his lips across her cheek, he brought his mouth to her ear. “Come for me, Tifa.”

His words ripped through her, a cloudburst, and suddenly she was coming, tears rolling down her cheeks, her cunt clenching mercilessly on Cloud’s cock so that he was joining her with a harsh grunt, his orgasm spilling into her. Their shared releases augmented one another, an endless feedback loop of pure bliss. They were infinite.

After what could have been seconds, minutes, or hours, Cloud’s hips halted. He delicately removed himself from Tifa, falling over next to her before pulling her into his arms, bringing them back to where they’d been at the start. He kissed her neck and her shoulder, and his hand traced patterns on her hip. If she didn’t know any better, she’d say he was drawing a heart.

Her palm found its way to his chest again, settling over the hummingbird trapped inside. As the warmth from her hand spread into his skin, the hummingbird’s wings seemed to flap slower and slower, evening out. He would be asleep soon, so she took the opportunity while she had it. “I love you, too, Cloud.”

He didn’t say anything, but his arm tightened around her, and he pulled her in closer, tucking her head securely under his chin. 

“There was something else you said earlier as well. You said that sometimes you feel like you were put together wrong or that you’re broken somehow. But that’s not true, Cloud. You were perfectly made.” She felt his chest tighten under her hand. “You just get lost sometimes. But you know what?” She tilted her head up to gaze at him with all the love a person could ever need. “I’ll always come find you.”

His eyes shined with unshed tears as he bent down to kiss the top of her head. “Get some rest, Teef. You had a long day.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she snarked, a traitorous yawn escaping her as her eyelids drooped.

Cloud pulled the flimsy bed sheet over them and allowed Tifa’s peaceful breathing to lull him to sleep.

He awoke to the sound of a light knock on their door, the sun shining into their room. Before he could wake up enough to process any of this, the door was opening, and Aerith was walking in with the wildest grin on her face. He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Don’t even say it.”

She cackled maniacally as she walked out the door, then popped her head back in to say, “I told you so,” before skipping away.

He rolled his eyes, then felt Tifa stirring next to him. Her eyelashes fluttered like butterfly wings as they slowly drew all the way open. When her vision focused, and she found him looking down at her with fondness, she smiled sweetly. She leaned up and stretched her arms out behind her back, then above her head, the same way she always did after a successful battle. Now fully awake, she reached out to clasp her hand behind Cloud’s neck and pull him in for a deep kiss. 

Cloud could get used to waking up like this.

“Did you sleep well?” Tifa asked.

He smirked. “Next to you, who wouldn’t?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I wrote a second part because I have no self control. I hope you like it!

It had only been a few days since the party arrived at the inn in Kalm.

The second evening, after collecting themselves, everyone had gathered in the room Cloud rented. Cloud was leaning against the closed door, a concentrated look on his face. Barret was in the chair with Red sitting at his feet. Tifa and Aerith huddled together on the bed, Aerith holding Tifa’s hands in her lap, worried by the obvious concern contorting Tifa’s lovely features.

Barret had asked Cloud to elaborate on his relationship with Sephiroth, to inform them so that they might have a better idea what their next course of action should be. As soon as he had, Tifa’s entire demeanor changed and, of course, Aerith noticed, so she took Tifa’s hands in her own, hoping it might be some small comfort against whatever the other girl was grappling with. Tifa had welcomed the gesture, giving Aerith’s hands a gentle squeeze but remaining focused on Cloud as he prepared to tell them his story.

He cleared his throat. There was an itch at the edge of his mind as he searched its corners for the details of what happened. The stitching of his memory was fragile, had been since Tifa found him at the train station. It was as if he didn’t truly remember anything until he actively attempted to recall it, and maybe that’s because, somewhere deep down, he didn’t want to remember. Still, he knew he couldn’t avoid his past forever. It would catch back up with him one way or another.

“I met Sephiroth when I became a 1st Class SOLDIER. And somehow, despite Sephiroth’s aloof nature, we came to trust each other. I considered Sephiroth my friend, even if he didn’t necessarily feel the same. Shinra received reports of monster sightings at the Mako Reactor on Mt. Nibel, so I was dispatched along with Sephiroth and two other guards to investigate. On our way to Nibelheim, we came across a dragon, clearly one of the monsters spotted by civilians. We both went out to face the creature, but I just stood there, speechless, and watched as Sephiroth fought the beast all on his own. His strength was beyond anyone else’s I had ever encountered.” He sighed, “It still is.” 

If the others’ recent experience with Sephiroth had taught them anything, it was the magnitude of Sephiroth’s abilities. They all nodded in a shared understanding as Cloud continued.

“When we finally arrived in Nibelheim, Sephiroth asked me how it felt to be back in my hometown. He mentioned that he didn’t have a hometown of his own. I wanted to make conversation, so I asked him about his family, but all he told me was his mother’s name: Jenova.” A shiver ran down his spine, the thought of Jenova putting pressure on the seams of his sanity. He shook his head, clearing the debris. “I visited my mother, and I can only remember bits and pieces of our conversation, but… I’m glad we had that time together.” Cloud swallowed against the lump in his throat. It was hard to think about the last time he saw his mother, hard to ignore the bitter taste of guilt and grief on the back of his tongue.

Tifa fought the urge to go to him, to comfort him. Although he’d never admit it, afraid of exposing a crack in his bravado, Cloud’s mother had meant the world to him. If you’d asked the Cloud that Tifa had grown up beside, he would’ve told you the sun rose and set with Claudia Strife. And Tifa couldn’t blame him. Claudia was so good to him, always. She loved Cloud unconditionally. Of course, Tifa couldn’t find any blame in that either.

Composing himself, Cloud took a cleansing breath and went on. “I _attempted_ to visit Tifa, but her father turned me away because I was a SOLDIER, gave me the whole ‘stay away from my daughter’ talk and everything.” 

Barret found himself watching as Tifa chuckled fondly, amused to hear about her father’s antics. He knew how much Tifa missed her father. Hard as Barret tried to be the father figure she needed, there was no replacing the man who raised her, even in spite of Tifa’s constant reassurances that Barret was more than enough, more than she deserved. Barret looked at Cloud, though, saw the way Cloud was gazing warmly at Tifa, and thought, maybe, he’d done one thing right by Tifa where her father would’ve done wrong: instead of pushing Cloud out of Tifa’s life, and in defiance of his initial doubts where Cloud was concerned, Barret had embraced the ex-SOLDIER. It was easily one of the best decisions that he ever made.

Cloud picked back up where he’d left off, a smirk playing at his lips. “However, I happened to run into her martial arts instructor, Zangan, and he went on and on about Tifa’s skill as a fighter. I couldn’t believe the Tifa I knew growing up had turned into the woman Zangan depicted but, needless to say, I was dying to see for myself.” He glanced over at Tifa, and she was smiling at him, gentle and sweet, but there was something unusual in her eyes, something almost sad, something significant and knowing. He wanted to ask her about it, but he didn’t want to put her on the spot, so he decided it could wait until they had a moment alone.

“Well, I got my wish because Sephiroth ended up hiring Tifa as our guide to take us up the mountain. The journey was perilous, and we ended up losing one of the guards who’d accompanied us due to a faulty rope bridge. But we eventually made it to the reactor, which Sephiroth and I entered on our own. Once inside, we found several tanks filled with creatures submerged entirely in concentrated Mako, a strange combination of the procedure implemented to imbue SOLDIERs with power — the procedure I underwent — and the procedure to create materia. After coming upon the tanks, we also discovered a door, sealed shut, dressed with a plaque containing a single word: Jenova. Sephiroth questioned if, rather than being born, he’d been bred in the same fashion as the monsters in the tanks. He wondered if that was why he couldn’t connect with others, if he wasn’t truly human.”

Hearing this, Aerith’s grip on Tifa’s hands tightened like a vice. It hurt Aerith that Sephiroth seemed to exist with no ties to the planet, no ties to the life that inhabited it. She was angry with him, yes, for wanting to pervert the planet, to exploit it, but she also recognized his pain, his solitude. None of them could ever perceive how that felt, how it could drive someone mad. Aerith wished there were a way to help him, not just to stop him. More than anything, she wished she could offer him salvation. She wondered how the others might react to a suggestion like that. If she could find a way to save Sephiroth, to restore his humanity, would they accept it? Was it fair of her to expect such a thing after all that the man had put them through? Could Cloud and Sephiroth ever coexist?

“Since we had discovered the source of the monsters, we headed back down the mountain and returned to Nibelheim. There was an abandoned mansion, owned by Shinra, where their mad scientists used to do research. Sephiroth immediately made his way there and spent hours poring over journals and texts that detailed the studies and experiments surrounding his mother. I went and found him, but he had already begun to spiral out of control. He told me that Jenova was an entity Shinra had discovered deep in the earth, estimated to be 2,000 years old and, according to their records, determined to be one of the original stewards of the planet, an Ancient. And being her son, he believed himself to be the last living Ancient. Obviously, that wasn’t true. I’m not even sure if I believe that Jenova was an Ancient at all.”

Aerith locked eyes with Cloud then, and she simply nodded, acknowledging her place in this portion of the story. Cloud offered her the slightest smile, a reassurance. It meant more to her than he could ever know. She may very well be the last of her kind, but the people in this room would never let her feel alone… which only made her compassion for Sephiroth even more acute. She shook her head, an attempt at ridding the tortured man from her thoughts. Her attention turned back to Cloud as he finished his tale.

“Sephiroth left the mansion in a rage. He kept saying he wanted to see his mother. I tried to stop him, but he wouldn’t listen to me, so I went after him, and…” Cloud’s voice grew thick, the memory of what came next acrid and permeating his senses. He felt sick, but he wouldn't let his past control him. He had to face it head on. “I was too late,” he admitted, a tremble to his words. “By the time I caught up to him, Nibelheim was already burning. I found him, standing among the flames, and when he turned to meet my eyes, I knew he was gone. There was no feeling behind his gaze, only a cold, cruel resolve. Tifa’s instructor, Zangan, and I searched for survivors as Sephiroth made for Mt. Nibel. I went to my mother’s house, and—” 

Suddenly he couldn’t breathe. His blood was rushing in his ears, and his insides were chewing on themselves, his stomach curling painfully. His lungs were seizing, choking his veins. Tremors overcame his hands, and he began to lose feeling in his legs, his vision blurring. Panic gripped his heart. Somewhere far away, he thought he heard his name, someone calling to him, but he wasn’t sure until he felt a hand on his cheek, gentling him. “Cloud? Hey. Look at me, Cloud. Breathe.” Tifa’s sweet voice pulled him from his hysteria, and his head shot up. His eyes found hers, and her thumb ran over his cheek, wiping away tears he hadn’t yet realized were falling. She smiled at him, a smile that promised to handle him with care.

“‘m sorry, Teef,” he whispered, his breath stuttering on a hiccup.

“There’s nothing to be sorry for.” She placed a hand on his chest, and it immediately began to soothe him, closing some of the distance between him and peace of mind. Then she took one of his hands and placed it flat against her chest. “Can you breathe with me?”

He didn’t respond, just let his eyes fall shut, his other senses kicking into overdrive. He listened to her heartbeat, quite fast but beginning to slow. He felt her soft skin beneath his hand, the rise and fall as she inhaled and exhaled, the steady rhythm a reminder that he hadn’t lost everything that day in Nibelheim. He scented her rose oil in the air and felt himself falling back to reality, falling into her. He turned his head and kissed the palm of her hand, tasting the salt of her skin, a sigh escaping him as his breathing calmed.

“There you are,” she whispered, a smile in her voice. 

His eyelids fluttered open, awareness of his surroundings sluggishly returning to him.

“Are you okay?” a watery voice asked from across the room. He realized it was Aerith and looked to find her with tears brimming in her eyes, her hands clasped together in front of herself as if she’d been praying.

“Yeah, I’m okay. I promise,” he said. The tension in Aerith’s shoulders released as she took a deep breath, and she let her hands fall back to her lap.

Red broke the silence then, his rich timbre filling the room. “You don’t have to go on if you don’t want to.”

“I’m sorry I asked, Cloud. I had no idea, I… I shouldn’t have—”

“No, Barret, it’s okay. I think I need to get it off my chest. Otherwise, this will just keep happening.”

The older man stared at him for a moment. Whatever he was looking for, he must’ve found it because he simply grunted and gestured for Cloud to start again.

Cloud turned to Tifa, still standing in front of him. “Would you… take my hand?”

Tifa didn’t hesitate, immediately lacing her fingers with his, pressing herself against his side, grounding him. 

He gave her hand a light squeeze before finally deciding to speak. “So, as I was saying, Sephiroth had set Nibelheim on fire and made for the mountain to be with Jenova. I looked for survivors, then went to check on my mom, and…” His chest tightened, and he started to worry he actually may not be strong enough to do this. But then Tifa ran her thumb over the back of his hand, and he knew he was safe. He wouldn’t drift into the abyss of his darkest memories so long as she was there, anchoring him to the present, the future and all its potential shining in her eyes. This was the first small step toward letting go, toward holding onto something new, toward moving on. “I found my mother dead. Sephiroth had stabbed her in the heart. So I pursued him. I climbed the mountain, entered the reactor, and saw Tifa kneeling on the ground before Jenova’s chamber, her father’s body on the ground. Sephiroth had killed him, too.”

Cloud glimpsed at Tifa, both to make sure she was okay and to ask for permission. The next part of the story centered around her, and he didn’t want to reveal anything she wasn’t comfortable with. But she just nodded at him, leaning against his shoulder, steeling herself. 

“Before I could intervene, Tifa took up Sephiroth’s sword, which he’d left inside her father, abandoning it to focus on opening the door to Jenova’s chamber. She attacked him, but he managed to disarm her and…” His head began to ache, vivid images piercing through his consciousness, the same images he’d seen in Sector 5’s reactor but expanded upon, greater in detail. After a moment, the images subsided, and he clutched Tifa’s hand desperately, drawing on her strength to push through the end of the story. “From the bottom of the reactor’s steps, I saw Sephiroth slash Tifa across the chest with his sword. She was flung backward by the force of the blow and fell down the stairs. I went to her and was sure that I had lost her. I wanted revenge, so I followed Sephiroth into Jenova’s chamber. I watched as he began dismantling the apparatus that held what remained of his mother. I prepared to attack him, and… that’s the last that I remember. I assume that Shinra found me, and that’s when Hojo took me to be one of his experiments, but I can’t be sure. The media claims Sephiroth died that day. I can’t be sure about that either. And I don’t know that I believe I could’ve beaten him.”

Silence fell over the room as the others absorbed all that they’d learned from Cloud’s story. Barret had never asked Tifa about what happened in Nibelheim, well aware that it was a sensitive subject, one which she didn’t enjoy discussing. But this was so much worse than he’d imagined. The thought of Tifa being hurt the way that Cloud had described… it was agonizing. 

“Tifa, how did you survive?” Aerith asked, interrupting yet echoing Barret’s thoughts. “Cloud says he was sure that he’d lost you, but obviously, that wasn’t the case.”

“Zangan found me. He used up all of his Healing materia to save my life. So much of it, in fact, that I don’t have a single scar.” _At least, not on the outside,_ she thought.

“Well,” Red chimed in, “I know this gives us a lot to think about, but I’m starving.”

Barret chuckled and said, “Yeah, I’m with you there. We can strategize and talk plans after we eat. Why don’t you and I go pick up dinner?”

“Oh, I’ll go, too!” Aerith jumped up from her place on the bed. “You coming, Tifa?”

The raven-haired beauty shook her head. “No, I don’t have much of an appetite right now. Thank you, though.”

“What about you, Cloud?”

Cloud’s eyes were focused on the ground, his brow furrowed, as if he were deep in thought. He didn’t answer directly, just shook his head, the same as Tifa had.

“All right,” Aerith relented, “but I’ll make sure to bring back some leftovers in case you change your minds, okay? Let’s go, guys.” She made for the door, stopping to kiss Tifa’s cheek and give her hand a reassuring squeeze as she went. Red and Barret followed after.

As soon as the door was closed, Cloud found his voice. “Tifa…”

“Cloud?” 

He opened and closed his mouth a few times, unsure of how to say what he needed to. She waited patiently until he found the proper words. “Tifa, what aren’t you telling me? You know something. I could see it in your eyes when I first started talking about Nibelheim, and I can see it now.”

Sighing wearily, she took his hands in hers. “Cloud, do you trust me?”

“More than anyone,” he answered immediately.

“Then I need you to listen to all of what I’m about to say to you. Let me get it all out, and then you can decide what you think is best. Okay?” Unsure and anxious of where she was going with this, he nodded stiffly. With his reluctant consent, she began, “It’s no secret that you’re missing time. When I found you, you didn’t know what year it was. You thought you were still 16 years old.” 

Cloud winced, the memory she referenced a particularly visceral one. Tifa huffed and abruptly wrapped her arms around his torso, burying her face in his chest. They stood that way for a moment, Tifa simply breathing him in. Then she turned, settling her ear just above his heart, concentrating on its unwavering pulse.

“Whatever Hojo did to you during that missing time, Cloud, whatever you saw or experienced, I think it affected you more profoundly than either of us realize.” She tilted her head up, her chin against his sternum, meeting his eyes with her own. “The way you managed to come out of Mako poisoning is unprecedented. Anyone else in your place wouldn’t have even survived, let alone accomplished all that you have since coming out of it. And you patched yourself up entirely on your own. But… we both know that the sutures on your mind are delicate.”

He didn’t argue, just brought his hand up to slide into the hair at the nape of her neck, his fingers caressing her there, sensing her distress. 

She released a ragged breath, tears pooling in her eyes. “I’m _scared_ of saying the wrong thing and unravelling what you’ve worked so hard to stitch together. I’m scared of putting too much on you at once and overwhelming you. But, most of all, I’m scared that, the next time you get lost, I won’t be able to come find you because you’ll just be gone. So, please, give me time and believe me when I say that I am only trying to protect you until I’m sure that I won’t lose you for good. I can’t… I can’t lose you, Cloud.” 

Cloud hugged Tifa tighter to him, letting his chin fall to the top of her head, his hands rubbing up and down her back. “You won’t,” he vowed.

Tifa sniffled, nuzzling into Cloud. “You’re not angry with me?”

“What? Of course not,” he replied, pulling away so he could stare at Tifa incredulously. “You’re right. My mental health is tenuous at best. And you’ve been nothing but patient with me. I have no reason to push you on this.”

She seemed to relax, his words pacifying her fear that this would come between them. 

“Did I get everything right about you, though? In the story.”

“Yes, don’t worry. Sephiroth did hire me as the tour guide, he did kill my father, I did attack him with his own sword, and he did brutalize me. Unfortunately, every bit of that was true.” She laughed, but it was humorless.

Cloud grabbed her chin and looked her deep in the eye. “He will never touch you again.”

There was a possessive note to his words that made Tifa’s knees go weak. But before she could respond or take advantage of the moment, the others were opening the door and coming in, Aerith holding two plates of steaming food and Barret carrying two cups of water.

They sat the food and drinks on the nightstand as Barret said, “All right, y’all, let’s get down to business!” Eventually, Tifa and Cloud managed to dig into their food.

Hours later, when they were finally done discussing for the night, the others filed out of Cloud and Tifa’s room and into their own. Tifa was equally as ready to go to bed, exhausted both physically and emotionally. But instead of joining her, Cloud said, “I think I might go for a walk, clear my head.”

Tifa’s forehead wrinkled. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. Don’t wait up, okay? Get some sleep.” He walked up and kissed her on the forehead before walking out the door.

That was that.

It had been three days since then, though, and Tifa was losing her mind.

Tifa was losing her mind because Cloud hadn’t touched her since the night that they arrived.

She knew why. After all, Cloud hadn’t slept since that night either. He spent all his time strategizing with Barret or training or following up on potential leads or going for walks. He was clearly distracting himself from something. She just didn’t know what. It wasn’t because he didn’t want her. _That_ she did know.

But it was killing her because she _wanted_ him. Oh, how she wanted him. She wanted him every second, every minute, every hour of every day. She just hadn’t yet worked up the nerve to do anything about it.

Until now. Until tonight. Tonight, she had her own strategy.

They’d heard rumors of a man matching Sephiroth’s description in Junon, so they intended to travel there in the morning and investigate. This provided a window for Aerith, who was in on the plan because she was the best friend anyone could ask for, to convince Barret and Red that they needed a full night’s sleep before beginning their journey, that they could get back to strategizing with Cloud tomorrow. And she did. They were all tucked in and dreaming.

Which is why Tifa was standing in she and Cloud’s room, waiting for him to arrive.

After their first night at the inn, they’d managed to track down pajamas for themselves, some sweatpants and tank tops, nothing too glamorous. Tifa had already changed into hers, creating the illusion that she was prepared for sleep, which was hilariously far from the truth. 

She heard his footsteps thudding down the hall as he got closer to their room, and she could have sworn that her heart was thudding even louder.

He walked inside and found her sitting on the edge of the bed. He crossed to the sink and wet his toothbrush, then brushed his teeth, methodically and efficiently. After he was done, he set the toothbrush down and turned back toward the bed. This was usually the point in the evening where he found some excuse to leave the room again. He couldn’t say he was going to talk with Barret, so he would say he was going for a walk.

But not this time. Not if Tifa Lockhart had anything to say about it.

Tifa walked to the door, then twisted around to lean against it, the same way she’d leaned against his wall that night in his apartment at Stargazer Heights. He gave her a curious look, his head tilted like a Chocobo’s. “What are you doing?” he asked.

She completely ignored his question. “Aren’t you going to put your pajamas on?”

His eyes moved to where his pajamas sat, laid out on the bed for him, then jumped back to Tifa. “Actually, I was thinking about going for a walk—”

“You’re not going anywhere,” Tifa said plainly, reaching her hand out to activate the lock on their door.

Cloud’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head, his confusion only growing. “I’m… not?”

“Nope,” Tifa replied, her voice dripping with saccharine sweetness. “Now put your pajamas on.”

She’d clearly taken him off guard because he didn’t protest at all. He just picked his pajamas up off the bed, his brow knit with obvious uncertainty, and began to change. Tifa watched, doing her best to appear disinterested in the display. But on the inside, she was studying every bit of him that she could get her eyes on. Inside, she was mapping a trail for her mouth. Inside, she was admiring the curve of his biceps, the ridges of his abs, the sleek line of his back, his perfectly toned ass, his sharp jaw, his full lips, his dark eyelashes, everything. Everything about him was so maddeningly attractive. Her pussy clenched painfully.

He had apparently decided to forego the tank top for the evening, wearing only the sweatpants, which hung on his hips _just so_. It gave her a perfect view of the harsh “v” shape leading from his lower abdomen and down below his waistband, like an arrow guiding her to the Promised Land. Her mouth watered. All she wanted was to sink her teeth right in.

They stood there in quiet for some time, Tifa concealing her burning desire with a passive look on her face and Cloud completely befuddled by the whole situation. 

He cleared his throat awkwardly. “So—”

“I didn’t say you could speak,” she interjected cooly.

And just like that, Cloud seemed to catch onto some percentage of what was happening because his face shifted instantly from hopelessly confused to deeply intrigued. He leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “You’re being very rude right now. That’s not very Tifa of you.”

“Really?” she asked with feigned apathy.

“Really. You’re also being incredibly demanding which, while not unwelcome, is also not very Tifa of you.”

“Oh, like you’re some sort of expert.” Her words were thick with sarcasm.

At this, he pushed himself off the wall and briskly crossed the expanse between them, suddenly taking up an excruciating amount of her personal space. She could smell the toothpaste on his breath as he said, “I am _the_ expert.”

Her mind short-circuited, and words escaped her entirely. She just stood there, dumbstruck, hoping he couldn’t tell, hoping she had maintained some sort of advantage despite the curveball he’d thrown at her.

“Is there a reason for this strange behavior?” He leaned in closer, placing his hand on the door right next to her head, boxing her in on one side. 

Tifa quickly rebooted her brain and searched its databanks for a response. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s muscle tension, yeah? I’ve been feeling pretty tight.” She watched with great interest as Cloud’s pupils blew wide, his mouth parting at the image she presented. “You could help me work it out, though, right? I think all I need is a firm hand.”

As if summoned by her words, his other hand came up to perch at the opposite side of her face, caging her completely, and he leaned in impossibly closer, skimming his nose across her collarbone. The air was teeming with static heat, the moment before a lightning strike. It was stifling. She couldn’t breathe. “You’re teasing me, Tifa,” he rumbled.

She swallowed down a whimper. Her voice was breathy and small when she responded. “Am I? Oh, I’m sorry.”

His lips brushed over the hollow of her throat. “No, you’re not,” he whispered before suddenly pinching one of her nipples through her tank top, making her yelp. 

Her hands clenched into fists at her sides. She wasn’t quite ready to give in. “You’re right, I’m not sorry at all. So, what are you going to do about it?” 

“Is there something you’d like me to do?” he asked, his warm breath tickling the patch of skin just below her ear.

“You’re a smart guy, Cloud. You can figure it out.”

He simply hummed in reply. One of his hands slid down the door, then moved to slide under the fabric of Tifa’s tank top, his calloused fingertips hot against her soft, sensitive skin. She shivered violently, and her breathing picked up, veering toward hyperventilation. He had barely touched her and, already, she was on the verge of shattering. 

She slammed her head back against the door, tears falling unbidden from her eyes and trailing down her neck, her bottom lip trapped in a bruising hold between her teeth. He pressed a tender kiss into the junction of her shoulder and neck, and her chest wracked with a sob.

“Tifa, you’re so worked up,” he remarked, his voice filled with awe.

“It’s _your_ fault. You’re the one who gave me a taste of paradise, then starved me out. I’m going through withdrawal.”

He chuckled, the dark sound vibrating down into her core, stirring the butterflies hibernating there. His mouth latched onto her pulse point, and he sucked vigorously before licking a stripe up her neck, his tongue darting out to flick the lobe of her ear. “ _Paradise_ , was it?” he asked smugly.

Unable to contain herself anymore, Tifa brought her hands to his shoulders and lifted her legs to wrap around his waist, his hips instinctively shooting forward to pin her against the door, holding her up. She smirked at him. “I don’t know, maybe I’m not remembering it correctly. It’s been so long that I can’t be certain.”

“It’s only been a few days!” he objected.

“I know perfectly well how long it’s been,” she shot back, levelling him with a glare, “and you are never allowed to go that long without making love to me again.” She punctuated her demand with a slow roll of her hips, knocking the wind out of them both.

Once he’d recovered from her onslaught, the hand that lingered under her tank top started exploring again, gliding upward to cup her breast. “Yes, ma’am,” he purred. Then he wrapped his lips around her nipple, his saliva soaking through the fabric of her tank top as he slurped at it. Her fingernails dug crescents into the skin of his shoulders, and she moaned, writhing under his mouth. He pulled away, eliciting a whine from her. Removing his hand, he tapped the hem of her tank top and said, “Let me see you.”

Without hesitation, Tifa quickly yanked her tank top off, leaving her torso bare for him. Her nipples were still hard, blushing red from his ministrations, her breasts heaving with her breath. Cloud drank them in for a moment, then lifted his eyes to meet hers. As always, Tifa was reminded of the Nibelheim sky, of the night she’d met him at the well. Back then, when Tifa looked up at the sky, all she saw were possibilities, the promise of adventure, the potential of a future that fulfilled her and made her complete. She saw the same in Cloud’s eyes. She saw everything that they could have together, and she knew that she couldn’t ask for better. This was it for her. He was it.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked, the husky silk of his voice pulling her from her trance.

She sighed and smiled at him. “I’m thinking about how much I love you, how it feels like my heart exists out of my body now because you carry it with you, how every fiber of my being is constantly aching to be closer to you… even now.”

For a long moment, Cloud just gazed at her, the look in his eyes unreadable. Then he wrapped his hands around her calves, unwrapping her from his waist, and hooked his elbows under her knees, spreading her wide as he brought his palms to the wall again, pressing their chests together. They both groaned at the contact. In this position, Cloud’s exceptionally hard length settled right against Tifa’s center, only the thin fabric of their sweatpants separating them. He placed open-mouthed kisses against her sternum, trailing up her neck and onto her cheek, stopping just before he reached her mouth. His lips hovered a breath away from hers as he said, “You said you want to be closer. Is this close enough?”

Tifa instantly shook her head, anticipation thrumming inside of her.

Cloud’s chest vibrated against hers as he hummed in understanding. Then, without warning, his hips surged, the solid heat of him sliding along her folds, putting the sweetest pressure on her engorged clit. She cried out. The crotch of her sweatpants was already soaked through with her arousal. It wouldn’t take long for her to reach her peak.

He continued to grind his hips against hers, filthy and desperate. She tried to move with him, but he kept her pressed firmly against the wall, unable to do anything but hang there in his arms and fall apart. He dodged her attempt to kiss him, too, huffing a laugh as she whined at the denial. 

The tension was cracking inside of her, about to break, and she felt like she was holding her breath. “ _Cloud_ …” she warned.

His voice shook with the effort of his movements. “Don’t fight it, Teef. I promise I’m going to make you come again and again. You can let go.”

She leaned forward and bit into his neck, muffling herself as she came with a shout. He kept moving, carrying her through it, her clit pulsing against his cock. When it became too much, she sucked in a sharp breath, and he stilled himself. 

Her head slowly lifted to lie slack against the door when she finally drifted back to earth. As her eyes refocused on Cloud’s face, the Nibelheim sky filled her vision. She wanted to trace the constellations buried in the vibrant blue and green of his irises. He was biting his lip and watching her carefully. When their eyes met, he looked her up and down, taking in her contented state, the widespread flush of her skin, and pressed his lips to hers. She sighed into his mouth, already close to crying again. They took their time, kissing each other languidly, nipping at each other’s lips, sucking on each other’s tongue. Eventually, they broke apart, coming up for air.

Tifa was panting. “Please, fuck me,” she begged. “I feel so empty.”

Cloud smiled and playfully bumped his nose against hers, then whispered, “No.”

Before she had a chance to challenge him or complain, he slid his arms out from underneath her knees, replacing her legs around his waist and wrapping his arms behind her back. He quickly brought her to the edge of the bed and flung her onto it, climbing after her and covering her body with his own, his forearms positioned on either side of her head. Her head was swimming as he bent down to kiss her once more, her mouth, then her jaw, then her neck, her chest, and so on, gradually making his way down her torso. He made stops along the way, putting his mouth on her breasts again, dipping his tongue into her bellybutton, whimpers spilling from her mouth at the sensation, then continued his travels.

When he reached the waistband of her sweatpants, he brought his hands down to skim his fingertips beneath, the muscles of her abdomen contracting under his knuckles. He lifted his face, locking eyes with her, then started dragging the sweatpants over her hips, calmly, deliberately, his eyes never leaving hers. All she could do was watch, speechless, her eyes like saucers. Once he’d removed the sweatpants entirely, he tossed them aside and reached for the pillow sitting at the top of the bed. He sat up on his knees and tapped Tifa’s hip. “Up,” he commanded.

She automatically lifted her hips off the bed, allowing him to settle the pillow underneath. His hands were sliding up the inside of her legs then, pushing them apart, holding her thighs down flat against the bed, stretching her open before him.

“Don’t move,” he said, leaning forward onto his elbows. She kept herself spread wide, knees still stuck to the bedsheets, and he made an approving noise. His mouth hovered over her pussy, his warm breath hitting her clit and making her squirm. 

He met her gaze again and, without a second thought, lapped his tongue all the way up her slit, sucking on her clit when he reached the top. She keened loudly, bringing her hands down to dig into Cloud’s hair. Using her hold on him as leverage, she rubbed herself all over his face while he worked on her. He bounced between slurping on her clit, laving it, licking over her entire center, and darting his tongue inside of her, his nose bumping into her clit each time he did. All of it, every act, drove her mad in equal measure, and she could scarcely believe it, but by and by, she was coming again, her release lathering his mouth and chin as she moaned unabashedly, her voice going hoarse. After her orgasm was finally through, he crawled back up her body, smiling, and kissed her deeply. She could taste herself on him, and it thrilled her.

As their tongues tangled with each other, his hand slithered over her body, back toward her center. He suddenly thrust his middle and ring fingers inside of her, and she gasped, her hands scrabbling at his shoulders. 

“C-Cloud!” she cried. “I… I can’t.”

“You can,” he stated, matter of fact.

She shook her head adamantly, but even as she did, she felt her insides coiling. She imagined herself as a grand piano, and him a virtuoso, expert in stroking her keys and drawing beautiful music from deep within her. Her body was singing. He drove in and out of her at a punishing pace, his fingers hitting her center of percussion over and over, the heel of his hand brushing against her oversensitive clit. 

Cloud felt her inner walls begin to tighten, and he grinned. He brought his lips to her ear and whispered, “You’re such a good girl, Tifa.”

The air rushed from her lungs as her climax crashed over her like a tidal wave, her eyes slamming shut and her mouth parting in a silent cry. Her hips undulated into his hand, and her thighs spasmed intensely. A full body shiver overtook her in the wake of her third orgasm that night. He simply held her there, covering her face, her neck, and her chest with soothing kisses until she relaxed.

His hand travelled back up her body, lazily playing with her nipple, just enough to keep her strung out. “On your stomach,” he instructed.

She wasn’t sure how, but she managed to summon the strength, twisting her body so that her torso lay over the pillow now, her pussy landing just at the edge of it. She heard him get up and slip off his sweatpants before climbing back onto the bed.

He grazed his fingers up the back of her legs, then nudged them farther apart, pressing her down, her clit meeting friction as it dug further into the pillow’s edge. He gripped her hips, and electricity shot up her spine as she felt him lining up with her entrance. 

“ _Yes_ ,” she sighed.

Then he was pushing inside of her, splitting her open, torturously slow. He groaned, the sound vibrating all the way down to where they were joined. Her hands were twisted in the bedsheets, holding on for dear life, afraid she may actually float away otherwise. When he was finally sheathed inside her to the hilt, she bit into the pillow below her, quieting the scream that ripped through her throat. 

Cloud wasted no time, his hips instantly starting to move, in and out and in again, the sweetest agony. With every thrust, he pressed Tifa into the pillow beneath her, rubbing her clit, driving her toward yet another release. “Cloud, I… I’m—”

“Come, Tifa. I want to feel it.”

She did as he asked, coming as she choked on a sob, her body going hot all over and her eyes rolling back in her head. Her walls clenched around him, and he grunted, painting her insides with his spend. But he kept moving. He didn’t soften. He was still pumping, slipping in and out of her with ease, their shared releases coating her entrance. It was like a dream.

He grabbed her hair, gathering it into one hand and twisting it around his wrist. Then he used it to pull her up, her back flush with his front. “I’m not done with you yet,” he growled.

Her head fell back against his shoulder, her mouth gone slack. His hand slid down her front, his fingers spreading and slotting around the spot where his cock drove in and out of her, the palm of his hand flat against her clit. Tifa wanted to tell him that her clit couldn’t take anymore, but she’d been wrong before, so she was more than willing to let him test it out. He started moving his hand in time with his thrusts, and sure enough, she was on the brink of her fifth orgasm. What was her limit? One of these days, when they had nothing but time on their hands, they would have to figure it out.

Cloud turned to graze his teeth over the side of her neck before sucking another mark into her skin. “How about now, Teef? Is this close enough for you?”

Tifa nodded eagerly. “I wish I could live with you inside of me.”

“ _Gods_ , Tifa.”

Hearing him say her name like that set her off, fireworks bouncing around her ribcage as her vision went white and pleasure completely consumed her. He grasped her jaw, tilting her head toward his so that he could kiss her, swallowing her wailing cries. She came down from her high only to realize that Cloud was still going. “Cloud,” she whined, “I want to see you.”

He didn’t say anything, just stopped his movements and slipped out of her, letting himself fall down to lay with his back against the pillow so she could maneuver herself on top of him. Carefully, she lifted her legs to straddle his hips, lining him up and then sliding down onto him in a straight shot. She watched as ecstasy washed over him, twisting his features into something somehow even more beautiful, a harsh moan passing through his lips and igniting the air between them. 

But she wanted a closer look, so she reached out to grasp his neck, pulling him toward her so they were chest to chest. He held himself up with his hands, flat against the bed behind him. Satisfied with their proximity, she began bouncing herself up and down, riding him hard and fast. She slid her hand up his chest, past his neck, and into the hair at the back of his head, latching onto it and yanking, tilting his head back and exposing his throat. She lavished it with attention from her mouth, licking a stripe over his Adam’s apple, kissing along his jawline, suckling on his earlobe, all while rolling her hips over his. 

Her thrusts were causing him to hit that sensitive spot inside of her in quick succession, and when she felt herself getting close, she set her forehead against his. He lifted his mouth to hers in a graceless and passionate kiss. “I love you so much,” he swore, his voice quiet and sincere. 

She tucked her face against his neck, her arms coming up to wrap around his shoulders, openly weeping as she hit her release. It flooded her system and, for a moment, she was convinced she could actually see light glowing inside of her veins. It was pure, unadulterated bliss.

Her hips didn’t slow as she rode out her climax, and he followed shortly after, holding her just shy of too tightly, filling her to the brim, the evidence of their orgasms dripping out of her.

They fell onto their sides, lying face to face, smiling like fools. Cloud reached out his hand to brush Tifa’s hair out of her face and tuck it safely behind her ear. Her hand came up and caught his wrist as he did it, and she pressed a kiss into its pulse point. 

“I’m sorry,” he started, “for neglecting you. You deserve better than that.”

She sighed, “It’s okay. I know you’ve had a lot going on…” She tapped his forehead suggestively. “I just wish that you’d let me help you is all. I thought that’s what we’d agreed to. Why have you been trying to handle it on your own?”

“Honestly? I was scared. I’ve been afraid to fall asleep or be alone with you since we relived what happened in Nibelheim, afraid that drudging up those memories will have had some adverse effect on me and cause me to hurt you in some way. I can live with a lot, Teef, but hurting you…? I would never be able to forgive myself for that.”

She scooted closer to him, tangling their legs together, her hand settling on his cheek. “I completely understand that. Really. But I actually think it’s impossible for you to hurt me, Cloud. In fact, I think that I’m the one person who would be able to pull you out of it if you lost control. I think your desire to protect me is that powerful.”

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, soaking up the moment and absorbing what she’d said. “You really have that much faith in me?”

“I do,” she promised.

He furrowed his brow, thinking it over before he looked at her and said, “Let’s get some sleep.”

Her face lit up with relief. “Yes, _please_ ,” she replied, and he pulled her into his arms. 

“Oh, I’m sorry, are you a little worn out?” He was trying not to laugh.

She punched him lightly in the arm, the smile in her eyes betraying her playfulness. “Shut up, I will kick your ass!”

His eyebrows shot up. “You will, will you?”

“Well, we both know I’ve got you beat hand-to-hand.”

“That remains to be seen, but what if I’ve got my sword?”

She smirked, relaying a smugness she only ever exhibited with him. “I’m a trained martial artist. You think I don’t have some skill with a sword?”

“I don’t know. I guess you’ll have to show me sometime,” he suggested, displaying a smirk of his own.

“I’d love to. But either way… I think we both know I’m much better at handling your sword than you are.” She blinked at him with faux innocence. 

“Do you want to get some sleep or not?”

She giggled, “I do.”

“Then stop talking about handling my sword,” he threatened.

They both laughed then, a full, happy sound. Tifa couldn’t remember the last time she’d heard Cloud laugh like that. Hearing it made her heart trip over itself inside her chest. 

She didn’t know when they finally fell asleep. They stayed up for a while after that, just talking with each other, marinating in one another’s presence, but eventually, Tifa’s body gave into sleep. 

The next morning, they were all packed up and prepared for their voyage to Junon. Cloud and the others were waiting outside while Tifa returned the keys to their rooms. She handed them off to the receptionist, who immediately scanned them into the system, officially checking them out. 

“I’m glad to see you’ve made a full recovery, Miss Lockhart. Please, stay safe out there.”

Tifa gave her a warm smile. “How many times do I have to tell you to call me Tifa, Kaye?”

The receptionist, Kaye, blushed and looked down at her desk.

“You saved my life. I’d say being on a first name basis is the least I could offer in return. Now, I’ll stay safe out there so long as you promise to stay safe in here. Deal?”

Kaye lifted her eyes back to Tifa’s, biting back a grin, and nodded. “Deal.”

“As soon as this is all over, I promise we’ll come visit. Goodbye, Kaye.” Tifa leaned over the desk and placed a kiss on the young woman’s cheek.

“Goodbye… Tifa.” The young woman’s face was bright red as Tifa laughed, charming her one last time before walking out the front door.

Red was sitting in the bed of the truck, and Aerith was in the passenger seat of the cab next to Barret, who would be driving. “Ready to go?” Aerith called, her voice like a song.

“Ready!” Tifa responded. Then she hopped on the back of Cloud’s bike and wrapped her arms around his waist, nuzzling her cheek in between his shoulder blades.

“That goodbye took a while,” he observed.

He felt it as Tifa smiled against him. “Well, I have a lot to thank her for.” She held him tighter, her meaning abundantly clear.

Chuckling, he said, “I suppose that’s true. Now hold on tight.”

“Always.”

He revved his engine and gave Barret the thumbs up. With that, they began the next step of their journey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you wanna screech about Cloti with me, follow me on twitter: @cIoudsmiIes

**Author's Note:**

> I would love to have more Cloti friends on twitter, so here’s my page: twitter.com/cIoudsmiIes


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